Return to The CPFA Forum Opening PageThe Sixty Percent Law
NOTE: This statement represents the official position of the California Part-time Faculty Association regarding the sixty percent law.
POSITION STATEMENT
CPFA favors repeal or modification of Education Code 87482.5, the statute that classifies all faculty working at or less than 60% of a full teaching load as "temporary." CPFA believes that faculty hired on a temporary basis in the CCCs deserve the same protection as substitute teachers in the K-12 system: that is, if they are employed longer than a strictly limited period of time, they should be shifted onto the tenure track and the regular pay scale. Such protections for CCC instructors exist elsewhere in the Ed Code but, because of 87482.5, these protections do not apply to those teaching 60% or less FTE. CPFA further believes that teaching on a part-time basis should not preclude tenure track status. Regularized tenured part-time positions can protect the need for flexibility due to enrollment fluctuations and changing program needs, while accommodating the desire or need of some highly qualified instructors to teach part-time. Other sections of the Education Code may need minor amendments to accomplish this basic aim.
The full ramifications of repeal of 87482.5 would include the cost of compensation equity for a large number of instructors currently classified as "temporary" - a cost estimated by the CCC Chancellor's Office at about $200 million in addition to the $57 million already earmarked toward part-time faculty pay equity. Such a legislative approach, though not cost neutral, would preclude the problems in local implementation that now exist in distribution of the $57 million equity fund. On the other hand, due to current budget considerations, CPFA is willing to consider various sorts of low cost or cost neutral phase-in or short-term approaches to the ultimate goal of complete regularization of long-term "temporary" faculty. These include but are not limited to:
(1) raising the limit from 60% to 80% with accompanying legislative definition of "comparable duties"
(2) making the 60% limit (or the increased 80% limit) college-specific rather than district-wide
(3) mandating various seniority rights, due process protections, and right of first refusal of assignments protections that fall short of full tenure but would move to progressively professionalize temporary and part-time faculty, and would thereby enhance the education of their students
(4) establishing regulations that would assure that, when there is any increase in per FTES funding, districts will proportionally progress toward the minimum standard that 75% of credit instruction shall be taught by contract or regular faculty employees.
